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This memorable feature from Nadine Labaki seems to provoke love or hate. Cast with predominantly non-actors, it is for the most part an extraordinary film that shows the awful reality of the life of Syrian children well below the poverty line in Lebanon. Continue reading
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Unrolling like a gentle dream, Beatriz Seigner’s Los Silencios takes the serious subject of the displacement of Colombian refugees and tells it in a lyrical and ethereal way. Continue reading
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This serviceable dramatisation of the life of author Mary Shelley (Elle Fanning) satisfies as much as it disappoints. Feeling a bit like a made-for-TV movie, director Haifaa al-Mansour (Wadjda) paints by numbers, giving us a long succession of plot points with a good dose of high emotion but little drama. Continue reading
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This is a strange film. It changes mood, pace and genre several times, beginning as a straightforward drama then veering into romance then horror then fantasy then fairytale, with the occasional musical number thrown in. Continue reading
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I tried to keep my expectations low for this quiet and cinematic meditation on masculinity and rodeo riders. I only booked it because of recommendations from fellow MIFF tweeters and it’s often a mistake to expect too much (First Reformed (2017) is a good example of this). It took a little while to settle into the pace and the slight awkwardness of non-professional actors but once I did, I was hopelessly lost in its beauty and pathos. Continue reading
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Based on the real problem of children left vulnerable when their parents are captured or killed by Mexican drug cartels, Issa López’s horror take is cast primarily with child actors who do a decent job of carrying the story. Integrating fable-like elements and some competent special effects, the result is engaging although somewhat marred by sentimentality. Continue reading
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This debut feature from Iceland’s Isold Uggadottir takes a small moment in the lives of two very different women and spins a delicate and nuanced story of oppression and connection. Continue reading
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Based on the 2014 Israeli film of the same name (originally titled Haganenet) by Nadav Lapid, director Sara Colangelo casts Maggie Gyllenhaal as the eponymous teacher, Lisa, whose life changes when she hears a child in her class recite poetry. Continue reading
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Director Pooya Badkoobeh’s first feature is an absorbing coming-of-age story about a complacent teenager who, like a fine dressage horse, has been protected from the realities of life. Continue reading
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It is the unflinchingly scrutiny of the doleful Sofia’s face that made this film for me. Behind that impassive mask, that became animated only at certain moments, I could see the naivete that had brought Sofia to this untenable point in her life. Continue reading
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